Martinez Fischer files protective order bill

Another San Antonio lawmaker has filed legislation that would amend the protective order law to include safeguards for third parties.

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, filed House Bill 1986 today. Under the proposal, law enforcement officers could secure protective orders in cases involving two people not involved in an intimate relationship. The bill aims to protect a third party from violence stemming from the individual’s dating relationship with the former spouse or partner of a person threatening the third party.

Currently, only people involved in a dating relationship qualify for protective orders.

The bills were prompted by Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed in the days after the fatal shooting of Kristy Appleby, who officials say was gunned down by her boyfriend’s ex-wife in the parking lot of a North Bexar County animal hospital earlier this month.

Month’s before the fatal shooting, Appleby, 32, had applied for a protective order against Leticia Arcos, the woman accused of confronting Appleby in the parking lot of the clinic and fatally shooting her. Appleby alleged that Arcos had previously attacked her, but the request for a protective order was denied because the two women were not in a romanticrelationship.